July 17th, 2018: The introduction of a new degree program is set to deliver a boost to the UAE’s licenced psychology sector as it experiences a growing demand from clients across the Emirates.
The Canadian University Dubai (CUD) Bachelor of Arts in Psychology program will admit its first cohort in both English and Arabic language streams at the beginning of the Fall 2018 semester. The degree has been developed to help address the current deficit in professionally trained and licenced psychologists in the UAE, which currently has just one psychologist per 200,000 people.
Dr. Stefane Mostefa Kabene, program leader and a practicing psychologist himself, commented, “As a young society with a high expat population and so many different cultural dimensions, the UAE presents an exciting backdrop for the study and practice of psychology. It is also a profession where women are very well represented and so holds great potential to strengthen the female workforce.
“At CUD we have developed an exciting curriculum that will provide graduates with an immense variety of opportunities in professional practice, not just in clinical psychology, but in everything from cultural or sports psychology to educational or industrial psychology. They will also be equipped with the soft skills and core competencies of the social sciences that employers seek in every modern industry.”
The structure of the new program is deliberately diverse, incorporating aspects of psychology, biology, neurosciences, business and management. With the offer of courses in both English and Arabic, the program aims to increase the capacity of the sector across both languages in the UAE.
Addressing the demand for transferable, world-class education, CUD’s program has been designed to meet the professional licensure requirements for practice in Canada, America and the UK. The University is also working in partnership with elite international institution, Chicago School of Psychology, and is progressing the development of graduate level programs in specialist areas of the discipline.
Dr. Kabene concluded, “There is a desperate need in the UAE for more professionals in the field of psychology. Each year thousands of patients are going without the care that they need, and it is our hope to address this situation by building a new generation of trained practitioners.”
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